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The Fastest Brewday Ever: 1 hour, 47 minutes (5 gallons)

Based on two experiments done by brulosophy.com, I decided to mash and boil for 30 minutes each (instead of the standard 60). On top of that, I tried my new One Pot Brewing system for the first time. Total time from start to finish: 1:47! Compare this to traditional all-grain systems, which can range from 5 to 8 hours. When I looked at my stop watch, I couldn’t believe it. This, by the way, is total time–getting my brewing equipment out, filling my pot with mash water, cleaning (the little cleaning I have to do) – everything.

Here’s a video of the process (ignore the part that says 60 minute mash and 60 minute boil…that’s a lie for instructional purposes):

How I saved time

Start the brewday by adding hot water from your tap into the mash tun. Takes less time to bring to 155F.

30 minute mash

Brew in a Bag. That means I don’t transfer to another vessel after the mash, which saves a lot of time. When I’m done soaking the grains, I crank the heat and take the bag out (rinsing the grains is optional, but that wouldn’t take any extra time either in my system, although it does in a traditional all-grain system – for example an igloo cooler sparge takes extra time).

When bringing it to a boil, put the top on your pot and keep checking, just like you were making spaghetti. It will get to a boil faster. This is my first time trying it.

30 minute boil

chill in bath to 100 (not 70), then add half gallon or so of cold water to make 5 gallons (that’s called a “concentrated wort”…I believe Charlie P talks about this in his famous book). I basically end up with about 4.8 gallons of wort after the boil (roughly…I don’t care too much about it). So this works for me.

zero sanitizing: I mash, boil, and ferment in the same pot…therefore, I don’t sanitize anything.

little cleaning. The very little I have to clean (bag, strainer, spoon…wow, is that really it?), I can easily clean while I’m waiting for the boil. That means no clean-up afterwords. Previously, I would have to clean the brew kettle. No more.

Okay, but the beer tastes like shit, right?
I will report back in about a week or so. Tasting it yesterday from the fermenter, it tastes exactly as expected (it’s a very simple recipe highlighting some Victory malt). I will cold crash today, add gelatin tomorrow, bottle in a few days. If I turns out, you bet your ass I’m trying this out again on a Double IPA.